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| Monday, July 15, 2002
Ithaca Journal Alumni celebrate school's history ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The life of the school was brief. But the memories were vivid and the loyalties it inspired were strong. Sixty alumni from across the country gathered Saturday in Stewart Park to celebrate the 31st anniversary of the founding of Markles Flats Alternative Junior High School, circa 1970-73. A former principal, Jon Daitch, flew in from Paris just for the event. In an interview last week, he said that an alumnus, James Harcourt of Jefferson City, Mo., and a few others had the idea and organized the reunion through e-mail correspondence. Steve Halton of Lansing and Mary McGinnis of Ithaca organized the reunion locally. Markles Flats School, Daitch said, was part of the Ithaca City School District, organized to take care of elementary students who attended another now-defunct school, East Hill Alternative Elementary School. The school was housed in a small brick building, still owned by the Ithaca district, at Plain and Court streets. In the three years of its existence, approximately 150 students passed through its portals, Daitch said. Controversial school Markles Flats was always controversial and reflected a division between town and gown views of what constitutes a good education, Daitch said. Liberals at Cornell University supported the school and more conservative townspeople questioned it. "What people most objected to was the breadth of choice and the power we gave the students," Daitch said. "Students sat on interview committees when we hired teachers and decided what courses they wanted to take. Once a week everyone in the school attended an all-school meeting and dealt with any issues, including discipline." Learning was organized around interdisciplinary projects rather than courses, Daitch said. One project dealt with the state prison system and included on-site interviews with guards and prisoners. Another focused on a North Carolina mountain community, its flora, fauna, and people -- the information gathered on site. Imperfect teens The students, like any teen-agers, weren't perfect, Daitch said. Many of them came to the school because they weren't making it in their assigned schools. Sometimes, Markles Flats students would float over to The Commons. There was a controversy over student drug use the last night of a field trip. And anyone driving by the school could see students "hanging out" or having snow ball fights on school days. "For people used to more formal education, the school probably looked a bit weird," Daitch said. The school became an issue in a school board election, Markles Flats supporters lost, and the board voted to close the school at the end of the 1972-73 school year, Daitch said. Alumni today But the school's alumni appear none the worse for their unconventional education. Grace Tsiang is now senior lecturer and co-director of undergraduate studies in the economics department at the University of Chicago. Beth Bizzell, who saw no reason to get a high school diploma, lives in Seattle, Wash. and works part-time as a gardener for other people. She has set up and runs a forensic library for the Oregon State Police. Elena Robson of Saluda, N.C., is a certified 747 pilot and flies a regular route for Atlas Air, and Jon Sills is principal of the high school in New Bedford, Mass. Locally, Richie Stearns is a blue grass musician and Shane French runs an electronics company. So far as faculty goes, Michelle Whitham is the chief executive officer of a large law firm in Boston and Larry Jackson was the assistant producer of the movie, "Silence of the Lambs." Daitch, now retired, went on to be a teacher and administrator of the International School of Paris for 18 years. He had always wanted to live in Paris, he said. He has stayed there because his wife is French and has a job that can't be replicated in the United States. But teaching in Paris didn't compare with the Markles Flats experience, Daitch said. In the French school, children of diplomats and busines executives received a classic education and a sense of entitlement to run the world. The relationship between teacher and student at Markles Flats was special, he said. The school was about more than the basics. It was also about learning to get along with other people and to be responsible members of a community. Saturday's reunion was just a warm-up, Daitch said. "Everybody is saying in a year or two we'll have a full-fledged reunion for everybody, two or three days long, with planned events."
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An email from Jon, after the reunion on
Thusday August 8th 2002:
Hi Everybody,
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